


Advent Calendar 2014

by days_of_storm



Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Advent Calendar, Advent Calendar Drabble, Christmas, Christmas Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Established Relationship, Established Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Glitter, M/M, Mischief, Sexy John, Sexy Sherlock, Shower Sex, Slash, adorable idiots, shmoopy love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-01
Updated: 2014-12-25
Packaged: 2018-02-27 18:08:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 25
Words: 6,129
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2702348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/days_of_storm/pseuds/days_of_storm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is going to be an advent calendar which will consist of a tiny part of a story for each day of December until Christmas. Nothing serious, possible sex, it's all written in the stars :)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

John groaned when he heard glass shatter on the stairs. He was not in the mood to clean up after Sherlock today, not when he had started decorating the flat and was ready to sit in his chair, read a good book and sip on punch. 

“Help?” Sherlock’s voice sounded strained and John wondered whether he had managed to cut himself. 

“Do I need to call an ambulance?” He had not yet moved away from the fireplace where he had fixed two stockings with Sherlock’s knife. 

“Just come and help, please?”

It was the ‘please’ that did it. “Are you alright, Sherlock?” John quickly made his way to the top of the stairs and stared at Sherlock. To his feet lay a large broken jar which must have previously held a whole lot of fairy dust glitter which now covered Sherlock from head to toe. 

John blinked once and then stared some more. “Don’t move,” he said with a flat voice and Sherlock’s expression changed to a panicked one. 

“What is it? Is there something else?”

“Let me just,” John fumbled for his phone and then snapped a picture. For a handful of seconds, John and Sherlock silently stared at each other. Then John started laughing and Sherlock’s expression grew thunderous.


	2. Chapter 2

Sherlock had to be mindful of the shattered glass to his feet, and for once he did not do the rash thing and followed John back into the flat when John retreated, still giggling manically.

John stood behind the door, waiting for Sherlock to make it into the flat, his phone ready to snap another picture of his very own Christmas fairy. He tried desperately to keep from laughing out loud as to not give himself away. 

For a small eternity, nothing happened. John felt his excitement grow. It had been a long time since they had done anything truly silly, and even though Sherlock had looked at him as if he wanted to kill him, John knew that Sherlock would not be truly upset about his laughter. 

He closed his eyes and exhaled slowly, trying to melt into the wall. When he inhaled, he heard the creak of the floor boards and his eyes flew open - just in time to see Sherlock purse his lips to blow a handful of fairy dust glitter on him, too. 

He squealed undignified and tried to duck, but he knew that it was too late. Looking down on himself, John found that he was just as sparkly as Sherlock was.

He couldn’t help but grin when Sherlock pulled out his phone and took a revenge photo.


	3. Chapter 3

“So,” John started after they had stood there, two feet apart, knowing that any movement would cause glitter to spread to the floor and furniture. 

“So,” Sherlock answered and shook his head, causing a shower of tiny sparks to slowly descend all around him. 

“Why exactly did that happen?”

Sherlock sighed and sniffed, his universal sign for feeling misunderstood while knowing that it wasn't really the case. “An experiment,” he said very quietly, knowing that of all explanations, this was the one which would either get him out of trouble completely or get him knee deep into trouble which he had not known he could get into, all depending on John’s mood. 

“You tried to see what would happen if you dropped a jar of glitter on yourself and the stairs?”

“Not exactly,” Sherlock mumbled, flicking glitter from the lapels of his coat. 

“Then what?”

“I didn’t mean to break it. I was preoccupied and then it just burst.”

“The glass burst? While you were holding it?” John’s carefully blank expression became a worried one. “Did you cut yourself?”

“I’m fine. Well.” Sherlock made an elaborate gesture, indicating his whole body.

“So what exactly preoccupied you so much that you broke a jar while holding it?”

Underneath the glitter, John could see a blush rising to Sherlock’s cheeks.


	4. Chapter 4

“Is it to do with sex?” John managed to almost hit Mycroft’s tone of voice and Sherlock looked severely turned off.

“No,” he snapped, too quickly and too petulant to be honest. John grinned.

“Alright then. Warm thoughts on a cold December day?”

“Piss off,” Sherlock said, but he didn’t mean it; John could tell by the gleam in his eyes. 

John enjoyed needling him far too much to let him off easily. “Glitter and sex don’t really match, you know?”

“It was not about the glitter. The glitter was for something else.”

“Something else than sex?" John almost had to avert his eyes when Sherlock blushed more deeply. "An experiment. You said.” He tried to picture Sherlock doing something, anything useful with all that glitter. “Something Christmassy?”

“Can’t say,” Sherlock squared his shoulders.

“Something sexy?”

Sherlock sighed deeply and said nothing.


	5. Chapter 5

“So, what do we do now? We can’t really go anywhere without getting this all over the carpet.”

Instead of an answer, Sherlock unbuttoned his coat. John watched, grinning when Sherlock looked down on himself, causing more glitter to spread evenly all over his jacket and shirt front.

“Why?” Sherlock stared accusingly at his chest.

John chuckled and leaned forward, almost touching Sherlock's chest, brushing his fingers through his own hair to shake out the glitter. Then he wiped his hands on his jeans and carefully rubbed at his face. Bending over again, he pulled his jumper over his head and dropped it on the floor.

“You’re enjoying this,” Sherlock accused John, who smiled at him sweetly, and decidedly less glittery than he had been a moment before.

“I am. The glitter makes your eyes stand out beautifully.”

Sherlock had been about to say something harsh, but something about the sarcastic compliment made him hold his tongue.

“Why did you take that picture?” he asked instead.

“So I can relive that moment again and again.”

Sherlock smirked and closed the two feet distance between himself and John. “Liar.”

_________________________________________________________

The super amazing Khorazir has created a [super lovely illustration](http://khorazir.tumblr.com/image/104869988978) for this chapter <3

 


	6. Chapter 6

John looked up at Sherlock’s face, determined not to be affected by the glitter on Sherlock’s lips which begged to be wiped away with a thumb, or his tongue. 

“It’s plastic and aluminium,” Sherlock explained helpfully.

“How do you think that is relevant?” John forced himself to look away from Sherlock’s lips.

“Not toxic in tiny quantities,” Sherlock did what John had wanted to do and licked his lips. 

“Good for you, then,” John murmured a little breathlessly. 

Sherlock stepped back and bent over. “Do me,” he ordered and John spluttered despite knowing that Sherlock was referring to his hair. He could see Sherlock’s shoulders shake with silent laughter, but he couldn’t stop his hands from pushing into his hair, watching glitter rain down to the floor like snow in lantern light. 

“This is stupidly pretty,” he admitted finally, tracing Sherlock’s hairline with his thumbs while his fingers worked through his hair. “It’s also going to take weeks until this stuff is gone.”

“I trust you’ll help me wash it off,” Sherlock suggested from below, causing John to lean over and blow a raspberry on the exposed and decidedly glitter free nape of his neck.


	7. Chapter 7

“Hey!” Sherlock complained and grabbed John’s hips, pushing him back an arms' length. John straightened immediately and looked down on Sherlock as his hands moved to the buckle of John’s belt. 

“That … is a bit unexpected,” John admitted.

Sherlock knelt down in front of him and grinned as he opened John’s belt and flies. 

“Wait,” John placed his hands on top of Sherlock’s to still him. “What are you going to do?”

Sherlock sighed the sigh of the long suffering, but the grin was still there. “As if you can’t tell.”

“Yes, exactly. I can’t. You are amused. Why are you amused? You shouldn’t be amused while you try to get into my trousers.”

“Because you weren’t expecting this.”

“No,” John looked around the living room, wondering if Sherlock was trying to sidetrack him somehow. “There’s something else.”


	8. Chapter 8

“Fine,” Sherlock pulled his hands back but John was quick to grab them. He had the distinct feeling that Sherlock was playing him, only John had no idea to what end. “Wait.”

Sherlock sat back on his heels and looked up at John, a small triumphant smirk on his lips. 

"Alright." Sherlock made a point in specifically pronouncing the 't', just to annoy John.

“You’re killing me,” John complained.

“Elaborate.”

“Fuck you, that’s what I’m going to do. But …”

“Ah, the glitter.” Sherlock managed to sound eerily like Mycroft and he hated that Sherlock was beating him at his own game. 

“Okay,” John tried to figure out whether he was annoyed, turned on, or just bewildered. He couldn’t really say which one applied the most. “You stay where you are.” He pushed down his trousers and stepped out of them before taking off his socks, stepping outside of the circle of glitter that surrounded them. When he left for the kitchen, he could hear a small “shame” coming from Sherlock’s direction.


	9. Chapter 9

“That I left or that I left my pants on?” John asked grinning as he pulled out the vacuum cleaner from underneath the table. He was glad now that Mrs Hudson had left it in the kitchen the previous night and Sherlock had, instead of taking it downstairs, simply shoved it under the table.

“Both,” Sherlock said when John returned. 

John plugged the vacuum cleaner in and took off the head, slowly approaching Sherlock with the pipe, brandishing it like a weapon. “What you gonna do when they come for you,” he sang under his breath and Sherlock looked legitimately scared for a moment. John giggled and dropped the pipe. “I’m going to deglitterfy you. And then you will clean up the stairs and then, only then, will you meet me in the bedroom.” 

“That is not a word.”

“Yeah, and Sherlock Holmes does not drop glitter on himself because he thinks about sex.”

“I protest,” Sherlock tried to make himself seem tall while kneeling.

“The lady doth protest too much,” John broke out in giggles again and Sherlock’s further protests were drowned out by the sound of the vacuum cleaner when John switched it on.


	10. Chapter 10

John’s attack on Sherlock turned into an uneven battle in which John tried to reach as many body parts of Sherlock's as he could while Sherlock tried to curl himself into a ball to make sure John couldn’t do what he had set out to do. 

After John realized that Sherlock would remain stubborn, he changed his strategy and began cleaning the carpet around Sherlock and his own clothes. Then he switched the vacuum cleaner off and knelt in front of Sherlock, who still sat on the floor, his knees tucked under his chin with his arms around his legs and his hands in front of his face. He dropped one hand. “Are you finished?”

John grinned. “No, not at all.” Then he pushed and pulled at Sherlock’s limbs until he reached strategically important places which allowed him to undress Sherlock. To his surprise, Sherlock did not hinder him from taking off his jacket, shirt, shoes, trousers and socks. He looked pointedly at Sherlock’s crotch where his underwear revealed him to be half hard. There was also glitter on his pants. They would have to go, too. 

John stared at his chest and stomach, glinting in the low light of the room, making him look like he was covered in ice crystals. He had no right to be this pretty as a consequence of his incapability to walk up the stairs without tripping over his feet, which was what John assumed had happened. 

“You said you want me to do the stairs?” Sherlock reminded John, whose mind had definitely skipped ahead to an interesting shower in their not so distant future. 

“Stay where you are,” he ordered Sherlock and realized a moment too late that he had sounded bossier than he had intended. Sherlock blinked repeatedly and within moments his chest and cheeks were flushed pink.


	11. Chapter 11

Well, there was nothing to be done about it. At least not yet. John went back into the kitchen and opened several cupboards before he could find a plastic bag large enough to fit their clothes into. Then he returned and stuffed them in, all the while pointedly ignoring Sherlock who breathlessly remained in the exact same position in which John had left him. 

For a moment, John considered taking a shower and testing Sherlock’s patience, but he was still sure that something was going on from which Sherlock was trying to distract him and he desperately wanted to know what that was. 

Instead of washing the rest of the glitter off himself, he turned on the vacuum cleaner again and slowly closed in on Sherlock. Most of the glitter disappeared, but he knew that it would take months, if not years, for it all to disappear. 

Sherlock had watched him quietly, and John’s quick check-over revealed that he was fully hard now. He put down the vacuum cleaner and offered a hand to Sherlock. He took it and let himself be dragged to his feet. “Your fantasy was not about me cleaning the living room floor in my pants, was it?”

Sherlock snorted. “Not exactly, no.”

“Aha,” John pushed his index finger against Sherlock’s chest, just above his glittery nipple. “So you were fantasizing about me!” He smiled at Sherlock triumphantly.


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy half way to Christmas :) Thanks for your super lovely comments <3 they make my days and keep me writing!

Sherlock bit his lip. “Maybe I did. It doesn’t matter.”

“Oh doesn’t it? Because I recall quite clearly that it caused you to cover yourself in tiny plastic and aluminium particles which are not poisonous in small quantities.”

“I will never live this down, will I?”

“It’s been twenty minutes. I think you are overestimating the impact this experience is having on my list of things that I will never let you forget.”

Sherlock pouted and pulled John against himself, who yelped, but didn’t dare step back once Sherlock had slipped his hands down the back of his underwear and squeezed.

“Alright,” John said drily, fully aware that he would be quite glittery again quite quickly. “I’ll play along if you tell me what the glitter was for.”

Sherlock smirked and kissed the tip of John’s nose. “No.”

John sighed and placed his hands on Sherlock's, holding them in place. “No crevices will be entered by any other glittery body parts.”

“John!” Sherlock whined. Why was he being so overly dramatic? 

“Sherlock, no.”

“But I want you!”

John huffed. “I know!” he answered, imitating Sherlock’s needy voice. “Still no!”


	13. Chapter 13

“Kissing allowed?”

“Not really.”

“Not really is not what you were thinking earlier.”

John sighed. “Did I kiss you?”

“No.”

“See?”

“See what?”

“Self-control goes a long way sometimes.” And with that, John had him.

He had edged Sherlock once but extensively. He had not been able to walk properly for a couple of days, but the experience had left both of them with a whole new idea of what sex could be like. And it had not only been about sex. It had been about self-control for both of them, and Sherlock had given more thought to the concept after and had, in one late night conversation, admitted, that he enjoyed not giving in to his every urge and fancy as he had used to. 

John liked watching Sherlock lose control and more often than not John gave up control entirely, particularly when on a case, and blindly trusted Sherlock to do the right thing. But the right thing now was to get cleaned up, hoover the carpet and then clean the stairs and then, only then, would he slowly drag out Sherlock’s secret, which he dearly hoped was a secret and not really just a random experiment which needed glitter as an ingredient.


	14. Chapter 14

“Alright, you go and shower while I clean up. But you owe me.”

Sherlock scrambled to his feet and tiptoed into the bathroom, leaving behind a few sparkles on the floor. With a sigh, John cleaned the carpet and then put on shoes and took the bin and the vacuum cleaner out onto the staircase, hoping dearly that Mrs Hudson would not choose this moment to come out of her flat. He carefully cleaned each stair, slowly moving towards the disaster area which was covered in glitter and glass. He pushed most of it into the bin and vacuumed the rest of the stairs. Then he left the vacuum cleaner at the foot of the stairs with the bin and returned to their flat, closing the door and locking it behind him. He made sure that the door from the hall to the kitchen was also locked and kicked off his shoes, opening the bathroom door unannounced. 

Sherlock sat on the edge of the bathtub, still in his pants, looking at John expectantly. John raised an eyebrow and leaned against the closed door. “What now?”

“Since you’re so adamant to get rid of the glitter, I expect you want to continue your mission,” Sherlock smiled sweetly at John. 

“Right.” John sounded far less excited than he truly was.

“Problem?” Sherlock got up and shimmied out of his underwear.

John dropped his pants and stepped closer. “Not really, no.”


	15. Chapter 15

“Come on, in you go,” he gently prodded Sherlock’s chest. Sherlock sat down on the rim of the bathtub again, willing John to think of something to make him do what he told him to. But for once, John was quite alright with Sherlock choice. He pushed Sherlock’s legs apart and stood between them, their difference in size reversed due to Sherlock’s position. John gently pushed his hands into Sherlock’s hair and leaned down to finally kiss him. He sighed into the kiss, admitting to himself that Sherlock had manipulated him not only into cleaning up after him, but also to get him to kiss him. For a moment he wondered whether the whole glitter situation had just been Sherlock’s idea of mixing things up and get them both naked without simply doing it for the sake of it. 

John pulled back and kissed Sherlock’s forehead. “I’m not even upset,” he said quietly, picking glitter out of Sherlock’s left eye brow. 

Sherlock looked up at him and inhaled deeply. “I can’t tell you what the glitter is for.”

“Is? While there is still lots of it everywhere, most of it is gone.”

“I’ll have to get more.” 

“It’s not for an experiment, is it?”

Sherlock bit his lip and shrugged. “I can’t say. It’s a surprise.”

“For me?”

“Not really, I mean, yes, that, too. But mostly not.”

“Should I be jealous?”

Sherlock snorted and pulled John closer to kiss his chest. “I’d be very worried if you were.”


	16. Chapter 16

John ran his hands down Sherlock’s back, enjoying the moment of contented cuddling before deciding that maybe, just for the sake of Christmas, he would stop asking questions about the incident. He did, however, plan on never letting Sherlock live this down. 

Sherlock pushed him away a bit and lowered his head, sucking John into his mouth. “Oh god,” John doubled over with the unexpected feeling of heat and Sherlock’s tongue and lips around himself. “Remember when I said no crevices?”

Sherlock pulled back and let him slip out. “There was no glitter on it.”

“Still, Sherlock. Let’s shower, okay? I just want to make sure that I can touch you without finding more and more of the stuff on you.”

“Fine,” Sherlock sighed dramatically and pushed John away to swing his legs into the tub. Then he held out his hand and John climbed in, too.

The hot water felt amazing on John’s cold shoulders. Not wearing anything apart from his underwear had not really been a good idea, he noted in hindsight. While the bathroom was relatively warm, the stairs and the living room had been rather cold and draughty, despite the heat John had felt, watching Sherlock in his underwear, sparkling in the lamplight. 

For a moment he regretted not taking a picture of him there, on his knees on the floor, needy and petulant. He shuddered and pulled Sherlock against him, enjoying the doubled heat from the water and Sherlock’s always unfairly warm body.


	17. Chapter 17

Sherlock finally grabbed the shower gel and squeezed a generous amount of it on his chest, waiting for John to start soaping him up. John just laughed at him and started washing himself, scraping at the small glitter particles with his fingernails. 

Sherlock wasn’t quite so lucky. Soon he found out that soap and water did not necessarily help to wash the glitter off. John only needed a few minutes to remove most of it, while Sherlock, having been much more glittery, grew increasingly frustrated. 

John chuckled and pushed Sherlock towards the end of the bathtub so he could wash away the soap on his body. Then he turned off the water and climbed out of the tub, dug around in a small cupboard under the sink and finally produced a bath sponge. “I hope for your sake that you did not use it for any of your terrifying experiments,” he grinned and threw the sponge at Sherlock. 

Then he climbed back into the bathtub, and watched as Sherlock scrubbed away it his arms and chest. The sponge helped indeed and Sherlock slowly cleaned the glitter away, moving down his body. When he bent over to scrub his legs, John pinched his arse, drawing a yelp from him. He straightened up and dropped the sponge, crowding John against the tiles. “Soapy feet,” John warned, feeling dangerously close to losing his balance and slipping. The warning was not heeded and Sherlock kissed him long and hard.


	18. Chapter 18

John had to remind himself of his own rule when his hands sought Sherlock’s arse and his index fingers pushed against his sphincter. Thankfully, Sherlock broke the kiss in order to moan and grab hold of his erection so John had the chance to force himself to pull his hands away. “Turn around,” he murmured and Sherlock retrieved the sponge from the bottom of the tub to hand it to John. 

Drawing things out a bit, John turned the water on again to thoroughly rinse the sponge, cursing when most of the glitter just remained stuck to it before turning it off again. “I honestly can live with body parts in the fridge if you promise to never again bring glitter into our flat.” 

Sherlock shrugged and John growled and pushed at his shoulders until he leaned over. He suppressed the urge to slap him and instead did his best to remove the glitter from his favourite body part of Sherlock’s. Once he was done, he dropped the sponge and pressed his thumb into Sherlock, who jerked lightly and clasped the rim of the tub on both sides to support his weight. No sound came out of him. 

John knelt, wincing at the pain in his knees, but keeping himself entertained by picking off more glitter which the sponge had not caught before pressing two fingers into Sherlock.


	19. Chapter 19

“John?” Sherlock groaned after a few minutes in which John had done little more than to stretch him and occasionally nip at his skin. “Can we please please do this in the bedroom?”

“Why?” John pushed his fingers in a little harder than before, causing Sherlock’s whole body to rock. 

“Because I want you in me and I don’t want to do it here.”

“One condition,” John grinned and he could almost hear Sherlock roll his eyes. 

“I will not promise to never bring glitter into the flat. In fact, I cannot as I will be bringing more glitter into the flat.”

“Ah, no, the other thing. What were you thinking about when it happened?”

Sherlock huffed and straightened, keeping his arse pushed out as if to will John to continue, unsure yet whether they would make it to the bedroom. “Christmas jumper.”

“You were distracted by a Christmas jumper?” John giggled and twisted his fingers. Sherlock gasped and pushed one hand against the tiles for support.

“Well, Christmas jumper. On you. And nothing else.”

“Oh, I see. Which one?” He pulled out and tried three fingers, using saliva to ease his way inside. He knew that he'd need lube to do this properly as it must have been uncomfortable for Sherlock, who seemed in the mood to humour him and therefore didn't complain.

Sherlock was silent for a moment. Then he exhaled shakily and turned half around to look at John. 

“The azure reindeer one.”


	20. Chapter 20

“You find that sexy?” John grinned and almost pushed them both over when he tried to kiss Sherlock on the lips.

“It was just a random thought. It occurred to me that you might be home and wearing that one.”

“Without my pants.”

“Without your pants.” Sherlock nodded gravely. “It was a very pleasant thought, well, until…”

John snorted and pulled his fingers out of Sherlock and turned the water on again for a final rinse. Then he stepped out of the tub, grabbed a towel and walked straight into Sherlock’s bedroom. They still called it Sherlock’s bedroom, since most of John’s clothes were still upstairs in his old room, along with all kinds of case files and evidence of old cases, which technically made both rooms Sherlock’s. John suspected that one day he would even find glitter in that room which had travelled there though their socks and shoes. “221B Glitter Street” he murmured and giggled when Sherlock broke out into peals of laughter behind him. 

"Now where is that jumper? I know you have it somewhere in here."

Sherlock, towelling off, shrugged and John shook his head, grinning. "Oh, you're a bad one."

That made Sherlock blush and John did him the favour of making a show of his looking for the jumper in Sherlock's wardrobe.

When John found it, he turned around and saw that Sherlock had not only blushed crimson from his hair down to his collarbones, but that he was indeed very hard - hard enough for John to worry that he might come if he did anything indecent or dared to touch him now.


	21. Chapter 21

“Put it on,” Sherlock said quietly, chewing on his lip. He added a whispered “please” when John raised a challenging eyebrow. 

John smirked and dropped his towel to pull on the jumper and Sherlock made a small desperate noise that went right into John’s cock. “Jesus, Sherlock, I had no idea.”

“Neither did I,” Sherlock admitted and rushed forward, pulling John hard against his body. For a moment, they just embraced before John’s hands wandered down to grab Sherlock’s buttocks and Sherlock moaned and kissed John desperately while his hands fisted the back of John’s jumper.

“Bed,” Sherlock finally grunted and all but picked John up, who laughed and wriggled free from Sherlock’s arms. “You. On the bed. Now.”

Sherlock gasped and complied while John pulled open the drawer of the bedside table and produced the last remaining bottle of lube. Well, the last until Sherlock would open his present on Christmas. For a short moment he tried to remember whether any of the bottles he had bought contained glitter and he had to bite his lip as not to laugh out loud. He prayed that none of them did. 

“Now,” he turned around and found Sherlock staring at him with heat in his eyes and a hand on his cock. John climbed on the bed and spread Sherlock’s legs. “Santa Claus is coming to town.”


	22. Chapter 22

“Well, I won’t be wearing that on Christmas,” John weakly hooked his thumb under the front of his jumper and pushed it up to have a look at the mess they had made. 

“I don’t think I’ll ever let you wear it when we are not alone,” Sherlock murmured against his shoulder. Then he giggled poked at John’s ear. “You’ve got some glitter there.”

John turned his head to look at Sherlock, who looked back at him, pretending to be entirely innocent. “You know that I wanted to spend a quiet evening in the living room by the fire.”

“You still can,” Sherlock pushed his nose against John’s shoulder and then pressed a kiss to his arm. “I’m heading back to the shower and then I’m out.”

“What? Why?”

“I need to buy more glitter.”

John shook his head. “I’m starting to fear for your sanity.”

“Don’t. I know exactly what I’m doing.” Sherlock pushed himself up and John took quite a lot of pleasure in seeing him walk a bit bow legged. All in all, the evening had turned out to be a great deal more adventurous and hilarious than he had imagined. 

He sat up and tried to pull the jumper over his head without getting Sherlock’s and his own spunk in his hair. Glitter was bad enough. He did not fancy scrubbing semen from his scalp. 

“Don’t be long?” he asked Sherlock once he had succeeded and made his way into the bathroom where Sherlock had been in and out of the shower in a flash. 

Sherlock looked John up and down, smiling at the bite-mark he had left on John’s biceps when he had come. The smile disappeared when John handed him a plastic bag, which seemed the ideal container for all and any of their clothes this day. “Take this to the cleaners, while you’re at it?”


	23. Chapter 23

Sherlock didn’t show his face until John had had punch, read a few pages of a novel without being able to concentrate on the content as he kept picturing Sherlock falling apart underneath him, and was in bed, half asleep, picking at glitter under his fingernail.

“You’re still awake?”

“The curiosity is killing me.”

“I cannot tell you yet.”

“When?”

“Can’t say.”

John yawned and pulled the duvet up to his chin. “Come to bed?”

“Soon,” Sherlock quickly walked across the room and kissed John on the lips. “Thanks for earlier. I enjoyed that.”

John huffed and pushed a hand into Sherlock’s hair and pulled lightly. “Yeah, me, too. Mad bastard.”

They kissed again before Sherlock smiled and pulled away. 

For the next few days, Sherlock did not mention the glitter again and John started to believe that Sherlock’s strange behaviour on the day had not originated in his wish to keep something from him, but in his embarrassment for fantasising about John in the blue Christmas jumper. 

Once the jumper had been returned from the cleaners, John had decided to keep it for the Christmas-do at Lestrade’s place. Sherlock would hate him, but it would do nicely to get him back for the glitter that turned up in the most unlikely places in the flat. He had decided not to ask about the glitter in the kettle, the glitter in the violin case and the glitter in the book he had been trying to read. Stranger things had happened, but John felt as if a fairy had moved into 221B Baker Street and sporadically sneezed on things.


	24. Chapter 24

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Merry Christmas! Thanks for sticking with me during this journey :) The final part will be up tomorrow and everything will be revealed :)

John hugged Mrs Hudson before she went downstairs. Christmas Eve dinner had come and gone and Sherlock had been almost content. He had complained about the music John had put on and the general tediousness of Christmas had been pointed out with a particularly colourful description of a Christmas dinner in his past when his not-quite-aunt [Gwendolyn](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1222567) had made a fuss about all kinds of things, but in general he had behaved well, eaten his dinner and desert and even held John’s hand for a moment.

The day had been surprisingly glitter-free and John wondered whether he’d find it in his presents on Christmas Day.

“Sherlock, let’s open one present each tonight,” he suggested after he had closed the door behind their landlady. There weren’t many, but three packages with his name written on them in Sherlock’s sprawling handwriting gave him a thirty three percent chance to sleep more peacefully tonight.

“You’re not a member of the Royal Family,” Sherlock pointed out from where he lay on the couch. “And no, I did not buy someone else a gold necklace while I got you a CD which will break your heart.” Sherlock was obviously proud that he remembered these details from the Christmas documentary and the film John had forced him to sit through the night before.

John giggled and picked up one of the parcels and walked over to the couch, pushing at Sherlock’s hip until he made room for him to sit. Sherlock grinned and pushed his hand underneath the back of John’s shirt, slowly stroking his skin. It was an incredibly intimate gesture and John guessed that his present had something to do with sex. He wondered whether Sherlock had guessed what he had gotten him.

He carefully unwrapped the present and smiled widely when he found that the box contained a self made memory game which Sherlock had gotten made. The images were, of course, of crime scenes which they had visited over the past years.

“This is disturbingly romantic,” John chuckled and gently kissed Sherlock.

“I want to open that one.” Sherlock pointed at the present containing the lube. John had also gotten him a new dressing gown, since he had managed to burn acid holes into his favourite blue one.

“Right,” John got up and handed Sherlock his gift. He made a show of shaking, sniffing and weighing the box before opening it. By that time John was sure that Sherlock knew what it was, but the expression on his face when he opened it proved him wrong.

“Merry Christmas to us,” Sherlock said with bated breath and then opened every single one of the six bottles to see how they smelled. Then he picked up the bottle that smelled lightly of vanilla and dropped the box on the floor. “John, go and lock the door. I don’t want to have to bury Mrs Hudson during the holidays.”

John laughed and kissed him again before he got up and locked the doors to the hallway. Sherlock sat up and started shedding his clothes, but John quickly walked over to stop him. “Let me unwrap my present,” he grinned and started unbuttoning Sherlock’s trousers.


	25. Chapter 25

John knocked on Lestrade’s door, reminding Sherlock to not wander off and experiment with anything work related he might find. Sherlock nodded and then the door opened and they were both hugged by Lestrade, and then handed a glass of punch and led to a table laden with food and desserts. A few people from the yard John and Sherlock had met previously at crime scenes were there, too. John noted the absence of Anderson and Donovan and was fairly sure that those who had come were the select few of the Met who had actually been impressed with Sherlock or appreciated his help in one way or another.  
The evening was spent eating, drinking and, after a short “no shop talk”, with a game of what was the weirdest crime they’d ever solved. 

Sherlock seemed positively happy and John said as much to Lestrade, who clinked glasses with him and said that he was feeling like the evening was a success. Just then, another knock came and John was more than a little surprised to find Mycroft Holmes step through the door. 

Sherlock simply raised an eyebrow, but not out of surprised, but general dismissal of his brother. Their greeting was cool and reserved and soon John noticed that they both tried to take care to always be on opposing ends of the room. “Did you invite him?” he asked Sherlock, who shook his head. 

“Lestrade did, though he did ask for my help.”

“Impressive.”

“Frightening.” Sherlock countered and then grinned and John had no idea why he did – at least not until someone called out “Christmas crackers” when Lestrade and Mycroft stood chatting at the buffet and half-heartedly accepted a cracker by a member of the force who passed them around.

John could feel Sherlock positively vibrating behind him and felt his arm around his chest, holding him tightly. He also noted the phone in Sherlock’s hand, but his quiet “maybe you shouldn’t” wasn’t heard. 

Lestrade and Mycroft tugged on opposite ends of the cracker and with a loud bang, glitter rained and rained on the two men, who stared at each other dumbfounded. 

“Merry Christmas,” Sherlock said, loud enough for Mycroft to hear who glared at Sherlock. John couldn’t help but laugh. Both Mycroft and Lestrade looked exactly like Sherlock had looked when he had broken the jar. 

“You are impossible,” John giggled and Sherlock nipped at the nape of his neck. 

Sherlock cleared his throat and called to his brother and his twin in glitter. “Try a sponge in the bath.”

To John’s utter surprise, Lestrade and Mycroft looked at each other and, through the glitter, blushed visibly.


End file.
